WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said in a filing Wednesday that special counsel Jack Smith has given Attorney General Merrick Garland the completed final report on his two investigations that led to felony charges against President-elect Donald Trump. Garland plans to make part of the report public, provided a federal appeals court overturns an injunction imposed by a judge appointed by Trump.
The Justice Department, acting independently of Smith’s office, filed the case in a federal appeals court after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, temporarily blocked the report’s release until three days after the 11th Circuit’s decision on a pending request to block the report. The Florida judge, Cannon, sided with the claim that Smith’s appointment was unlawful and dismissed the allegations against Trump.
However, the Justice Department stated on Wednesday that there was “neither any need nor legal basis for an injunction” on the report’s release because Garland plans to only provide Congress with volume one, which focuses on Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 election, “in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter.”
As long as the trials against Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira are still pending, Garland will not make volume two of the report available to the public.
Lawyers representing Nauta and De Oliveira were instructed by the 11th Circuit on Wednesday to respond by 5 p.m.
In a statement sent Wednesday night, attorneys for Nauta and De Oliveira asked the appeals court to schedule a hearing before Cannon in the district court. The lawyers contended that it would be a “improper attempt” to circumvent the district court to make the report available to members of Congress.
“The concern about leaks cannot be overlooked; Congress is a political body; its individual members have political aims; and this is a political case,” the attorneys stated in the paperwork.
According to the Justice Department’s submission, they would not make any information from volume two—the sole section of the report that pertains to the case involving the secret documents—public.
“For the time being, Volume Two will be made available for in camera review only by the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees upon their request and agreement not to release any information from Volume Two publicly,” lawyers from the Justice Department said. “This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants interests.”
Along with the public release of the volume on Trump’s election interference case, Justice Department lawyers requested that the federal appeals court “make clear that there is no impediment to the Attorney General allowing for limited congressional review” of the volume of the report on Trump’s classified documents case.
In addition, the Justice Department is requesting that the 11th Circuit overturn Cannon’s interim order that prevented any section of the report from being released for three days after the circuit court’s decision. Theoretically, Trump would have three days to ask the Supreme Court to step in and prevent the publication of the report’s first volume. Volume one might be released at any time after that if the circuit court grants DOJ’s request and reverses Cannon’s decision.
For her persistent support of Trump in the case, including her choice to drop the charges against him, Cannon has come under fire. She has been criticized for acting without legal justification for some of those rulings, notably how she handled a search of his Florida home.
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